I LOVE this cheat sheet. It was created by My Paper Crane as a guide to the fruit and veg that has the most pesticide residue (the dirty dozen). It also shows the fruit and veg that contains the least residue so you can get away with buying non-organic versions.

Pesticides on fruit and veg can disrupt hormone function which can be implicated in a number of conditions and life stages. Try to avoid as much as possible or use the cheat sheet to lessen the amount of pesticides in your diet.

Sometimes I feel like I’ve been living in a cave. I guess that’s the fallout from moving house recently and having two, super-energetic little ones charging around and keeping me on my toes. The thing that has had me feeling like the last one to “get with the program” this time is the advent of the Sweet Potato Brownie. I’ve seen recipes flying around for ages. The Honestly Healthy cookbook has one, I’ve seen recipes online and been squirreling away pictures of the brownies in question on Pinterest. One other thing that has allowed me to keep up with them is the natural health supplement that was recommended to me. It really is very effective, and I highly recommend it. It is called kratommasters if you want to look it up. I have long – admired the notion of sneaking the soluble fibre and antioxidant-rich sweet potato into a cake from afar. However, it’s only now that I’m finally jumping on the bandwagon. And what a tasty band wagon it is! There’s a lot to celebrate about this sweet potato brownie in my opinion. For one, by virtue of it being bolstered with delicious sweet potato, it needs so much less sweetness than the usual toothe-ache inducing versions. This rendition is gluten-free, I used Dove’s Farm gluten-free flour and ground almonds. I made this less virtuous than some of its forebears – I added a bar of 70% cooking chocolate to my recipe, where others used raw cacao or cocoa-powder instead. I had a really dense, fudge-y texture in mind when I was putting this together and I felt the melted chocolate would help.

I liked this so much that I have made it twice since my first go. Nothing has altered apart from a couple of embellishments here and there. First time I added some leftover white chocolate to the top and a bit of flaked seasalt when it had cooled down. On another occasion I added roasted hazelnuts. I reckon the hazelnut version was the winner. Incidentally, I fed this to my in-laws without saying it was “healthy” and it went down like a house on fire. Enjoy!

Ingredients

150g dark chocolate (70% plus)

170g sweet potato (cooked, pureed and cooled). I think you should only use the oranged flesh sweet potatoes for this anyone got an opinion on this?

1.5 tsp baking powder

0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda

125g gluten free flour

80g ground almonds

3tbsp maple syrup

2 tbsp of cocoa

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

120ml rapeseed, coconut or sunflower oil

Heat oven to 180C or GM 4

Method

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of water (with the solid coconut oil if using)

Beat the eggs, vanilla, maple syrup and oil into the sweet potato along with the cooled, melted chocolate

I’m running a pop-up on 26th July called Feel Good Feasts at The Plumtree Café in Greenwich.

The menu is going to be chock-full of nutrients that support brain health and wellbeing such as tryptophan and essential fatty acids. On the night each diner will get some info on other ways to get plenty of these brain-boosting nutrients in their diet.

]]>http://www.kindnessonline.com/pop-up-in-greenwich-26th-july/feed/0Review: Total Diet Foodhttp://www.kindnessonline.com/review-total-diet-food/
http://www.kindnessonline.com/review-total-diet-food/#commentsTue, 03 Jun 2014 10:00:18 +0000Annahttp://www.kindnessonline.com/?p=1715I recently sampled a days menu of the Total Diet Food (TDF) delivery service. TDF take a bespoke approach to each client’s menu, taking into account any allergies, food likes and dislikes and – most importantly – any specific diet you are following on the advice of a nutrition professional. The order form is really comprehensive so there are plenty of opportunities to be clear about your preferences.

My TDF cool bag

When it came to D-day I work up to find my TDF cool bag on my doorstep (apparently all deliveries are completed by 6.30am which is pretty impressive in my book!).

It was quite a novelty to have everything so carefully planned out on my behalf! Each meal was crammed with fresh fruit and veg. I think food delivery services like TDF can be a great option if you can afford to do it and have good intentions, but lack time. The highly personalised menus can help you adjust to new diets to avoid the initial “I’m -not -sure -what -I’m -allowed -to -eat” wilderness.

I found the Little Grazers website in a moment of panic. My youngest threatened a hunger strike unless she could feed herself. I practically backflipped for joy when my frenzied search for baby-led weaning recipes delivered me the Little Grazers site. It is packed to the rafters of great, healthy bite-sized recipes so it quickly became bit a fail safe resource for me when planning meals.

These flapjacks are my take on Little Grazer’s apricot flapjacks . Mr F was the first one to make these and I can testify they were thoroughly delicious. The original recipe was a bit too crumbly so I added a little more pineapple juice to mine along with some chunks of 70% dark chocolate and some pecans. I used coconut oil instead of butter – the pineapple juice and coconut combo is a winner in my book.

Kitchen sink flapjacks

Ingredients

2 cups of oats

1/2 cup of dried apricots

1/4 cup of pecans

1/2 cup of extra virgin coconut oil

1/2 cup of fresh pineapple juice (100% stuff)

Method

Preheat oven to 180c or 350f (gas mark 4).

Grease and line a shallow 20cm square tin.

Rough chop, oats, apricots and pecans in a food processor.

Melt the coconut oil over a low heat and when melted stir in the pineapple juice. Remove from heat.

Add the oats, apricots and chocolate to the melted butter mix and stir thoroughly.

The kids and I have been ill . We’ve fallen foul of whatever virus it is that is going about. We’ve been bed ridden at times, with fevers, sore throats – the works. The kids are almost back to their normal selves but I’m still definitely below par but was grateful to be up and about this weekend.

I made this soup on Saturday night based on a recipe from a Bill Granger book. I was in need of serious comfort and this recipe jumped out at me because a) it sounded like it would be soothing to eat and b) I had all of the ingredients in the house.

Mr F turned his nose up when I told him what was for dinner but soon ate his words (and a second helping) when it appeared in front of him. Even I was impressed with the quick preparation time for this one: 20 mins from finding the recipe to sitting down to eat it. Yee ha!

Method

Place the onion, oil and salt in a large saucepan and cook over a medium heat for 5 mins, or until the onion is translucent. Add curry powder (or spices) and cook for 2 minutes. Add the courgettes, stock, pepper and rice and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and cook for another 15 mins.

Add a good squeeze of lemon and the fresh mint. Blend the soup in a blender or food processor (or with a stick blender) – leave some texture. Serve with the yoghurt and sprinkle on your red pepper flakes if you’re having them.

These dainty little morsels were baked in honour of my friend Lucy’s visit. We don’t see Lucy that often but when we do meet it’s always lovely to catch up – we were introduced in New York by a mutual friend and we’ve stayed in touch ever since. She also lives in London, but on the most beautiful houseboat in Little Venice. She is the only person I know who lives on a boat and I always find myself really soothed by being close to the water when I visit. Anyway, she and Didier (her boyfriend) ditched the boat and arrived at my house by motorbike, much my kids’ delight.

I found the friand recipe on the BBC website and adapted it to use raspberries and make it gluten-free. These little patisserie cakes are super simple to make but don’t look it.

Method

Preheat the oven to fan 180C/conventional 200C/gas 6. Generously butter six non-stick friand or muffin tins. Melt the butter and set aside to cool.

Flour into a bowl incorporate the sugar. Add the almonds and mix everything between your fingers.

Whisk the egg whites in another bowl until they form a light, floppy foam. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, tip in the egg whites and lemon rind, then lightly stir in the butter to form a soft batter.

Divide the batter among the tins, a large serving spoon is perfect for this job. Place a few raspberries over each cake, sprinkle with slithered almonds and bake for 15-20 minutes until just firm to the touch and golden brown.

Cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then turn out and cool on a wire rack. To serve, dust lightly with icing sugar.

This dish was one of the first dishes I made post In:Spa last week. It was really simple but exactly what I was craving. It’s very loosely based on the idea of Shakshuka but minus the tomatoes. Tomatoes seem to feature pretty heavily in most interpretations of this tasty middle-eastern brunch dish, and while I can see their value (mine did err on the dry side – I’ll add a bit of stock next time) I’m pretty intolerant to tomatoes so I steer clear in my cooking.

The dukka was left over from my supper club – it made a lovely addition at the end with the pepper flakes and a drizzle of olive oil.

Spiced baked eggs

Fresh or frozen spinach

1 medium sized yellow onion

handful of mushrooms

Red pepper – deseeded and sliced

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 organic eggs

1tsp cider vinegar

1 tsp paprika

optional – red pepper flakes and/ or dukka to serve

Heat the oven to GM 8/ 200 C

Sweat down the onion, when starting to become see-through add the pepper and then the mushrooms. The spinach should go in last.

Add a little water if the mixture looks too dry, season with nutmeg.

Butter and oven- proof dish and add the vegetable mixture.

Make two wells in the mix and crack your eggs in.

Bake in the hot oven for around 15 mins (until the eggs are opaque or cooked to suit your taste)

Happy Valentine’s day y’all! Whatever that means to you. I love baking so much that I think nothing says you care more than a homemade cake. I made this recipe for my friend Lola’s new site, Canteen. I used fresh beetroot from my veg box but you could easily use vacuum packed – just check that it’s not pickled *gags*. Weigh the veg carefully – I just threw in all the beetroot I had for the first batch I made and Mr F declared it too beetroot-y. The kids, however, ate the small slice I gave them and immediately came back for more. It was a hit and a very sneaky way of crowbarring more veg in to their diets, methinks.